On to Psalm 30. Everybody worn
out? I'm always excited when, well,
at the first of the year when all this, I like it, I guess,
but I'm also glad when it's all over. The 30th Psalm. I will extol thee, O Lord, for
thou hast lifted me up and has not made my foes to rejoice over
me. O Lord, my God, I cried unto
thee, and thou hast healed me. O Lord, thou hast brought up
my soul from the grave. Thou hast kept me alive that
I should not go down to the pit. Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints
of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. For his anger endureth but a
moment. In his favor, life. Weeping may endure for a night,
but joy cometh in the morning. And in my prosperity, I said,
I shall never be moved. Lord, by thy favor, thou hast
made my mountain to stand strong. Thou didst hide thy face, and
I was troubled I cried to thee, O Lord, and unto the Lord I made
supplication. What profit is there in my blood
when I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise thee? Shall
it declare thy truth? Hear, O Lord, and have mercy
upon me. Lord, be thou my helper. Thou
hast turned for me my mourning into dancing. Thou hast put off
my sackcloth. and girded me with gladness to
the end that I may, my glory may sing praise to thee and not
be silent. Oh Lord, my God, I will give
thanks unto thee forever. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for the
Lord Jesus, our salvation. Lord, we ask for the revelation
of his person. We ask that he might be preached,
we ask that you would open our heart and our understanding that
we might be enabled to worship you. We thank you that you sent
him into this earth. And we thank you for what he
accomplished. The salvation of all your people and the complete
glorification of all your attributes. Lord, we pray for the forgiveness
of sins and we pray for cleansing for Christ's sake. Be with all
your people whenever they meet together. In Christ's name we
pray, amen. I enjoy trying to teach through
the shorter Psalms for this reason. You can read them as the words
of David and then read the Psalm again as the words of Christ.
And you can't really do that with Psalm 119 or some of these
longer psalms, but we know that every psalm is the words of David
in his own experience and our experience. And every psalm is
the word of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're going to read this
psalm twice. First, as the words of David and the words of me
and you. And then we'll read this psalm
as being the direct word of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Now, here
is the word of David. I will extol thee, O Lord, for
thou has lifted me up and it's not made my foes to rejoice over
me. Now David had a lot of real foes
in his life. He had a lot of them. And yet
he rejoices, Lord, you've not let my foes to rejoice over me. It's thought that David wrote
this psalm at the end of his life. And he's speaking of the
great deliverance that he's experienced, looking at over all of his life,
the foes, the sins, the people, whatever you want to say. He
said, you've not let them rejoice over me. Verse two, Oh Lord,
my God, I cried into thee. and thou hast healed me." Now
that could be pretty much the summary of the life of every
believer. I cried to thee. There's no really
nowhere else to cry, is there? I mean, nobody else can do anything
for you, but he can. I cried and thou hast healed
me. me." Now that can take so many
directions in our lives, but what I think of more than anything
else is, by whose stripes ye were healed. Verse 3, O Lord,
thou hast brought up my soul from the grave. That's regeneration. You hath it quickened. You were
dead in trespasses and sins. And thou has kept me alive. Aren't
you thankful for keeping grace? Why are you preserved? He keeps
you. Kept, I love that word, kept
by the power of God through faith unto salvation. Oh Lord, thou
has brought up my soul from the grave. Thou has kept me alive
that I should not go down to the pit. Sing unto the Lord,
oh ye saints of his. and give thanks at the remembrance
of His holiness. Now may the Lord enable us to
enter into this. The only way you can give thanks
for His holiness is if you're holy. Any way else, you'll be terrified.
The only way I can give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness
is if I'm holy. Now listen to these scriptures. By one offering, he hath perfected
forever them that are holy, sanctified. By the witch will, we are sanctified,
made holy through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once
for all. Now think of this, my holiness
is what Christ has done for me that makes me holy. Wherefore,
holy brethren, the writer to the Hebrews said, holy brethren,
partakers of the heavenly calling. Now, if I'm holy and I am in
Christ Jesus, he is my sanctification. I am holy. This is not, I'm not
imputed holy. I am holy. That's true of every
believer, the new nature. If you're holy, you know what
you can do? You can give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.
And you know, every time we take the Lord's table, isn't that
what we're doing? We're doing it in remembrance of him. Everything
with regard to the cross is a remembrance of the holiness of God. He says in verse five, for his
anger endureth, but a moment in his favor is life. Weeping may endure for a night,
but joy cometh in the morning. Now, what did David mean when
he said his anger endureth but for a moment? What did David
mean? I know what the Lord meant by
that, but what did David mean? The thing David did displeased
the Lord. That's with regard to Bathsheba. The thing that David did displeased
the Lord. And if I know the Lord and he's
displeased with me, as far as the way I feel, I feel like he's
mad at me. And I'm just talking about feelings
now. And that's the way a believer feels. You can't sin without
thinking of the Lord's displeasure. The Lord is not pleased with
sin in any way. But David would say, your anger
endures but for a moment, just a moment. But in your favor,
life. My life is his favor. And David understood that. You
cannot sin without, if you're a believer and you know the Lord,
you know sin displeases the Lord. You know it does. And you feel
his anger. You don't really, but that's
just the way you feel. You know what I'm saying when I say that,
as far as our experience goes, that's the way you feel. Weeping
may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. Now, weeping
enduring for the night, that could, refer to that time or
that all the days walking through the valley of the shadow of this
death. Is that, did I say it right? The valley of the shadow
of death? I mean, that's life, isn't it? It's going to endure
for a night just temporarily, but joy comes in the morning. That's talking about resurrection
morning. That's what we're waiting on when we're raised up in perfect
likeness to Christ. And with regard to any trial
the Lord's putting us through, Doesn't matter what it is, it
will pass. It will pass. The Lord's got his purpose in
it. It will pass. Weeping endures
for the night, but joy comes in the morning. Verse six, in
my prosperity, I said, I shall never be moved. Now, I've never, I know David didn't
mean that I've reached some kind of point in my growth that I
know I won't be moved anymore. He wasn't saying that, that's
contrary to the gospel. My prosperity is being found
in Christ. Is that your prosperity? Complete
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now in my prosperity, and boy
that's prosperous, isn't it? Prosperous in Christ, having
all spiritual blessings and heavenly places in Christ. In my prosperity,
I said I'll never be moved. And what happened? Verse seven,
Lord, by thy favor, thou has made my mountain to stand strong. Christ is my mountain. And by
his favor, I've not been moved. I'm still looking to Christ right
now. I've been kept, I've been preserved. He said, thou didst hide thy
face and I was troubled. Now, it's interesting, I read
several writers who said David should have never said this,
and that's why God hid his face. No. This is talking about the Lord's
chastening, and this is what chastening is. He hides his face. Somebody says, well, I must be
being chastened, I'm sick, or I wrecked my car, or I've lost,
To a believer, this is the way the Lord chastens. He hides his
face. And that's something that a believer
cannot deal with. If I have his face shining toward
me, no matter what's happening, I'm okay. You are too. But if he hides his face, no
matter how good things are, they're not good. And this is talking
about the chasing of the Lord, whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth.
If the Lord loves me, he'll chasten me. He doesn't chasten other
people's children, he chastens his own. And he says, thou didst
hide thy face and I was troubled. I cried to thee, O Lord, and
unto the Lord I made supplication. Now that's what happens when
the Lord hides his face. You cry to him. That's just as
natural as a baby crying. You cry to him. And here's what
you say. What prophet is there in my blood
when I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise thee? Shall
it declare thy truth, my spiritual death? Hear, O Lord, and have
mercy upon me, Lord. Be thou my helper. That's what
every believer cries when they feel like the Lord hides his
face. Nothing's good if the Lord hides
his face, as far as the way you feel. And look what happens in
him always hearing his people. Thou hast turned for me my mourning
into dancing. Thou has put off my sackcloth
and girded me with gladness to the end that my glory may sing
praise to thee and not be silent. Oh Lord, my God, I will give
thanks unto thee forever. One of the things I love about
the Psalms is David goes from the bottom to the top, just like
that. How often do you see that in
the Psalms? That's David. Now I want to, I love reading
it as David's words, but now Let's read this as the word of
the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, I will extol thee, O
Lord, for thou has lifted me up. Now, as we go on reading
in this Psalm, this is a reference to the resurrection. thou hast
lifted me up and has not made my foes to rejoice over me."
No foe will ever be allowed to rejoice over him because every
knee is going to bow to him. Every tongue is going to confess
that he is Lord to the glory of God the Father. He says in
verse 2, O Lord my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed
me. Now, we'll never plumb the depths
of union with the Lord Jesus Christ. But when I was healed
by his stripes, Christ said, you've healed me. And that's
how close that union is. When I was healed, he was healed
because he is united to me. And I can, I can show you how
that's true from the scripture. What about when the Lord said
through Paul, he that loveth his wife, loveth himself. Well, when Christ loved his wife,
he was loving himself. Now there's good practical instruction
there. You make your wife happy, you're
gonna end up being happy. I mean, that's true. But that's
not the point. When Christ loved the church
and loved his bride, he was loving himself. Isn't that glorious? Remember where Paul said, if
we deny him, he abideth faithful, he cannot deny himself. For him to deny me would be him
denying himself. Now that's how near, so near
to God, near I cannot be in the person of his dear son. I'm as
near to God as he. And that's what's being relayed
there. He says in verse three, Oh Lord,
thou has brought up my soul from the grave. Is that the resurrection
or what? Oh Lord, thou has brought up
my soul from the grave. Literally, David was talking
about being brought up from death and sins, but the Lord is talking
about his resurrection. Oh Lord, thou has brought up
my soul from the grave. Thou has kept me alive that I
should not go down to the pit. Now, why was Christ raised from
the dead? Never forget this, because he
made complete satisfaction. And now God is completely satisfied
with everyone that Christ died for. Complete satisfaction. Verse four. Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints
of his. This is the Lord calling upon
all of his saints, sanctified ones, holy ones, to give thanks
at the remembrance of his holiness. And where is his holiness remembered
most? The cross. You and we're observing
the Lord's table, this do in remembrance of me. how His holiness
was defined in the broken body and shed blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Every attribute of God, His holiness
is the description of every one of His attributes. A holy sovereignty,
a holy love, a holy justice, a holy immutability. Whatever
attribute you speak of with regard to God, He's holy. He's other.
He's all together, none like him. And all that is displayed
in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, verse five, for
his anger endureth but a moment. Now the Lord endured all the
completeness of his anger, but you know what? He didn't anymore. It endured just for a moment
because he made full satisfaction by what he did. His anger, you
know that scripture in Isaiah when it said, in a little wrath,
you hid your face. That doesn't mean it was just
a little bit of wrath. It means it was wrath that did
not continue forever. In a little wrath, that's Christ
speaking. In a little wrath, you hid your face. And that's
what he's saying here. For his anger, his anger against sin,
endureth but for a moment. In his favor is life. Weeping
may endure for a night. But joy cometh in the morning. And I couldn't help but to think
of that scripture in Hebrews 12 too, looking unto Jesus, the
author and the finisher of faith. He's the author of my faith.
He's the completer of my faith, who for the joy that was set
before him, the joy of obeying his father, he got such joy from
that. and the joy of saving his people
from their sins. Weeping may endure for a night,
and he sure enough did weep, and Jesus wept. Shortest verse
in the Bible, but how much it says. He was a man of sorrows
and acquainted with grief during his whole earthly time here. Weeping endures for a night,
but joy comes in the morning. Verse six, in my prosperity,
I said, I shall never be moved. Now, the Lord could certainly
say in his prosperity, I shall never be moved. Lord, by thy
favor, thou has made my mountain to stand strong. He never sinned. He never quit believing. By God's
favor, his mountain stood strong. And you know what this is referring
to when it says, thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled.
That's talking about Gethsemane's garden. That's talking about
the cross. God hiding his face from his son. My God, my God,
why has thou forsaken me? Thou didst hide thy face, I was
troubled, I cried to thee, O Lord. And unto the Lord I made my supplication. You know, Hebrews 2 speaks of,
or Hebrews 5, I can't remember which, it speaks of his strong
cryings and tears. That's a powerful thing, isn't
it? Strong cryings and tears. I cried unto thee, O Lord, and
unto the Lord I made my supplication. What profit is there in my blood
when I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise thee? Shall
it declare thy truth? Now, what prophet, the Lord is
saying, would my death be if I'm not raised from the dead?
What good would that do anybody? None. There's no benefit in my
death if I'm not raised from the dead. And he is calling upon
the Lord even at this time as the one who resurrects him from
the dead. But what prophet there is in his resurrection? The full
glorification of all of God's attributes. The complete salvation of all
of his people. But if I'm not raised, there's
no profit in that. What profit is there in my blood
when I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise thee? Shall
it declare thy truth? How the resurrection declares
his truth. Every attribute of God glorified in the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Hear, oh Lord, verse 10. Hear,
oh Lord, and have mercy upon me, Lord. Be thou my helper.
Now, once again, union with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Have mercy on me. Now, you know the Lord didn't
have any personal sins that he had to ask mercy for. But he
is united to his people. You know, here's a cry for mercy
that's better than any cry me or you ever make. His cry for
mercy. I can't express enough how in
my personal experience, my personal experience is this, my personal
experience always falls short. It's always inadequate. My confession
of sin, my cry for mercy, doesn't matter what it is. I'm looking
to him crying, have mercy upon me, oh Lord. Hear, oh Lord, and
have mercy upon me. Be thou my helper. And then look
what the Lord says. Thou has turned for me my morning
into dancing. I couldn't help but think of
David dancing before the Lord. when the Ark was being returned
and people criticized him for it. Well, Michael criticized
him for it. He said, you've made yourself vile. He said, I'll
make myself more vile. This was unto the Lord. Well,
the Lord, I don't know how to comment upon this the way it
ought to be commented upon, but in the resurrection, the Lord
was dancing before his father in absolute joy and exultation. Oh, how happy he is thou has
turned for me my morning into dancing. Thou has put off my
sackcloth, clothing of sorrow, death, the sin he bored and girded
me with gladness to the end that my glory. Now what glory he achieved
by what he did. He said, I've glorified thee
on the earth. I finished the work thou gavest
me to do. To the end that my glory may
sing praise to thee. That's the purpose for my glory,
the Lord Jesus Christ says, to sing praise to thee and not be
silent. Oh Lord, my God. I will ever
give thanks unto thee forever. Now this is a beautiful illustration. Yes, this is David's expressing
his heart, making bare his heart. We're so thankful for the Psalms.
And these are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ and speaking
of his resurrection. Okay.